chuck hagel writes, so why did we invade iraq? i believe it is the triumph, arrogance and incompetent that took america into this war of choice. chuck hagel, it should be said did not begin his career as a foreign policy apostate, in 2002, he voted for the iraq war. he wanted to tear up the missile treaty we have with russia to build a missile defense shield, and put boots on the ground in kosovo, which was at the edge of the extreme hawkishness. like many in the country, though relatively few in the congress, hagel was changed about the iraq war, he became a cautious critic and ended as an angry opponent. he ended a changed man or at least a changed foreign policy thinker. it was not just the iraq war he began to question by the end. it was the republican party's entire turn towards the unilateral, the very idea that america had the idea to topple the multiple dictators. this is what makes hagel so important, he is one of the few who is changed by iraq. he goes on to write "what the republican foreign policy establishment fears i